Customer Reviews

Hey! Look What I Found, Vol. 10

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this, the tenth installment in the "Hey Look..." series on the Mavis label out of Canada, are found 27 tunes mostly from the earlier days of American rock and roll. As with the other volumes, there are a few better-known hits included such as "Happy" by the Sunshine Company and "And Suddenly" by the Cherry People, two top-50 charters from the later 60's. Making up the bulk of the other tracks are lots of charted rarities most of which are not to be found anywhere else on CD. Stuff like "Almost In Your Arms", a Johnny Nash tune from his 50's period long before he hit big with "Hold Me Tight" in '68. The novelty tune "Blah Blah Blah" by Nicola Paone makes its CD debut along with the bouncy "Sole Sole Sole" by the Swedish-Italian duo of Siw Malmkvist and Umberto Marcato. Other interesting finds are "The Happy Muleteer" by Ivo Robic, his other charted follow-up to his big 1959 hit "Morgan" and the instrumental one-hit (barely) wonder "Baby Elephant Walk" by the Miniature Men.

Sound quality varies considerably - these are mostly, if not all, needle drops - with the majority decent-sounding with a few tracks (2,4,10,13,21) noticably noisy. A considerable number of tracks appear in stereo (5,9,11,15,16,18,20,22,24-27) with the remainder in mono. For this reason and the large number of charted rarities included in this volume, the rating gets pushed closer to four stars. An interesting collection of seldom-heard tunes for the collector or listener tired of the same old reissues. Since as of the date of this review there is no track listing supplied for this disc, the titles are given below.

1) The Bible Tells Me So - Nick Noble
2) From A School Ring To A Wedding Ring - Rover Boys
3) Teenage Party - Tommy Steele
4) Language Of Love - Cindy & Lindy
5) Mister Fire Eyes - Bonnie Guitar
6) Heartaches At Sweet Sixteen - Kathy Linden
7) Fibbin' - Patti Page
8) Almost In Your Arms - Johnny Nash
9) Charmaine - Mantovani
10) Blah, Blah, Blah - Nicola Paone
11) Words - Pat Boone
12) The Happy Muleteer - Ivo Robic
13) Bad Boy - Robin Luke
14) Ballad Of The Alamo - Bud & Travis
15) African Waltz - Cannonball Adderly
16) Go On Home - Patti Page
17) Baby Elephant Walk - The Miniature Men
18) True Love - Richard Chamberlain
19) Sole Sole Sole - Siw Malmkvist & Umberto Marcato
20) Just Like A Woman - Manfred Mann
21) Love Me - Bobby Hebb
22) Happy - Sunshine Company
23) Give Me One More Chance - Wilmer Alexander, Jr. & The Dukes
24) And Suddenly - Cherry People
25) Everybody Know Matilda - Duke Baxter
26) Any Way That You Want Me - Evie Sands
27) How Can I Be Sure - David Cassidy

First of all, let me say at the outset that audiophiles will NOT like this series from Mavis of Canada as the sound quality is certainly not up to the standards of anything to emanate from the likes of Ace of London, Rhino, Varese-Sarabande, Eric, Jasmine or Acrobat. In fact, it tends to waver from barely adequate to satisfactory.

Even so, for those of us who grew up with the hiss and pop of the 78- and then the 45-rpm this is tolerable, and if you gather together all eleven volumes in the series (so far) you will have 297 selections you're not apt to find in too many top-quality releases (so far). Indeed, some you won't find anywhere else as many were minor hits by bona-fide One-Hit Wonders. It is also important to note that there are no liner notes whatsoever, although the insert does contain a re-listing of the tracks showing both the artist and tune's writer/composer.

Because each is just a random continuance of the releases before it, and ranges from 1955 to the 1990's depending upon the volume, I have repeated this opening blurb for each, followed by some information you may find useful on each of the tracks.

I will continue my usual listing first of those selections that did not make any of the national Billboard charts, but in each instance they were hits of some sort in Canada and/or the U.K. I don't know where they got the "Rock Bottom" name beside Mavis above, but it certainly describes some of these selections: Teenage Party by Tommy Steele & The Steelmen - Decca F.10849 - 1957; Language Of Love by Cindy & Lindy - ABC 45-9847 - 1957; Heartaches At Sweet Sixteen by Kathy Linden (shown here as 1958 - which it might well have been initially - but it was also the uncharted B-side to her 1959 hit Goodbye Jimmy Goodbye on Felsted 8571 ); Charmaine by Mantovani & His Orchestra (circa 1958 stereo version of his 1951 # 10 hit); Bad Boy by Robin Luke (circa 1960); Just Like A Woman by Manfred Mann (circa 1966); Give Me One More Chance by Wilmer Alexander, Jr. & The Dukes (circa 1968);

The 1950's Billboard hits here are: The Bible Tells Me So by Nick Noble with the Lew Douglas orchestra (# 22 Billboard Pop Top 100 in August 1955 - written by Roy Roger's wife Dale Evans); From A School Ring To A Wedding Ring by The Rover Boys with Don Costa's orchestra (# 79 Top 100 in October 1956); Mister Fire Eyes by Bonnie Guitar (# 71 Top 100 in late 1957 for Bonnie Buckingham); Fibbin' by Patti Page with Vic Schoen's orchestra (# 39 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in October 1958); Almost In Your Arms by Johnny Nash (# 78 Hot 100 in late 1958 from the film Houseboat); and Blah, Blah, Blah by Nicola Paone (# 57 Hot 100 novelty tune in early 1959 and his only hit).

Those that hit the charts in 1960 are: Words by Pat Boone with the Mort Lindsey orchestra (# 94 Hot 100 flip of (Welcome) New Lovers in March 1960 puts new lyrics to Silver Threads Among The Gold); The Happy Muleteer by Ivo Robic (# 58 Hot 100 in January 1960 and VERY hard to find); The Ballad Of The Alamo by Bud & Travis (# 64 Hot 100 in late 1960); African Waltz by The Cannonball Adderly Orchestra (# 21 R&B/# 41 Hot 100 in May 1961); Go On Home by Patti Page (# 9 Adult Contemporary (AC)/# 13 Country/# 42 Hot 100 in March 1962); Baby Elephant Walk by The Miniature Men (# 87 Hot 100 in June 1962 from the film Hatari, and their only hit); True Love by Richard Chamberlain (# 98 Hot 100 flip of I Will Love You, in July 1963, from High Society); Sole Sole Sole by Siw Malmkvist & Umberto Marcato (# 11 AC/# 58 Hot 100 in summer 1964 sung in Swedish by Sir and Italian by Umberto - their only hit); Love Me by Bobby Hebb (# 84 Hot 100 in January 1967); Happy by The Sunshine Company (# 50 Hot 100 in August 1967); And Suddenly by The Cherry People (# 45 Hot 100 in summer 1968 and their only hit); Everybody Knows Matilda by Duke Baxter (# 52 Hot 100 in summer 1969 and his only hit); and Any Way That You Want Me by Evie Sands (# 53 Hot 100 in late summer 1969).

There is only one 1970's hit in this volume, that being his cover of The Young Rascals 1967 hit How Can I Be Sure? which topped out at # 3 AC/# 25 Hot 100 in late spring 1972.

I have all volumes in this series and after a little research found that the majority of these were BIG HITS in Canada. That's why most of these cuts are on these CDS. Many hits which only charted in the lower ranks of the Billboard HOT 100 or on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 charts were Top 40 in Canada. Many were actually Top 10. Other cuts are the ORIGINAL recordings of songs which charted by other artists and some are early recordings by people who later became charter toppers. Sometimes the quality of source material is not the greatest but we are lucky to have these available on CD. This series could have had 5 stars had there been comprehensive liner notes on each cut (original labels, numbers, Canadian chart listings, etc.) Enjoy.